Methods and apparatus to identify wireless carrier performance effects

ABSTRACT

Example methods and apparatus to identify wireless carrier performance effects are disclosed. A disclosed example method includes receiving an indication of media content presentation on a wireless communication device, monitoring a wireless carrier operating parameter in response to receiving the indication of media content presentation, and monitoring the wireless communication device for a media content presentation command. The example method also includes associating the media content presentation command and the wireless carrier operating parameter with a scoring factor indicative of subscriber preferences, and generating a report including the scoring factor.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

This patent is a continuation and claims priority to U.S. applicationSer. No. 13/616,714, filed Sep. 14, 2012, entitled “Methods andApparatus to Identify Wireless Carrier Performance Effects,” which is acontinuation of U.S. application Ser. No. 12/550,752, now U.S. Pat. No.8,285,218, filed Aug. 31, 2009, entitled “Methods and Apparatus toIdentify Wireless Carrier Performance Effects,” all of which are herebyincorporated by reference in their entireties.

FIELD OF THE DISCLOSURE

This disclosure relates generally to audience measurement and, moreparticularly, to methods and apparatus to identify wireless carrierperformance effects.

BACKGROUND

Media presentation consumption by target audience members generallyincludes listening to audio information and/or viewing videoinformation. Media presentations may include, for example, radioprograms, music, television programs, movies, still images, web pages,advertisements, video games, mobile applications (e.g., iPhone®application(s), social networking applications, browser applications),e-mail messages, text messages etc. Companies and/or organizations thatprovide one or more media presentations, such as advertisers, broadcastnetworks, etc., are often interested in the viewing and/or listeningexperience for a target audience.

While one or more media presentation(s) may originate from anadvertiser, a broadcast network, and/or any other company/organizationhaving media-centric interests, such media presentation(s) may passthrough a wireless service provider and/or wireless carrier prior tobeing displayed to a target audience. Target audience members mayinclude subscribers of the wireless service provider that own and/orotherwise possess a wireless communication device, such as a personaldigital assistant (PDA) and/or wireless telephone.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of an example system to identify wirelesscarrier performance effects.

FIG. 2 is an example heuristics matrix that may be used with the examplesystem of FIG. 1.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram of an example wireless communicator as shownin FIG. 1.

FIG. 4 is an example content session information data structure that maybe used to store content session information associated with asubscriber's wireless communication device.

FIGS. 5, 6A, 6B and 7 are flowcharts representative of example processesthat may be performed to implement one or more entities of the examplesystems and apparatus of FIGS. 1-4.

FIG. 8 is an example report generated by the example system of FIG. 1.

FIG. 9 is a block diagram of an example processor system that may beused to execute the example processes of FIGS. 5, 6A, 6B and 7 toimplement the example systems, apparatus, and/or methods describedherein.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The example methods and apparatus described herein may be used toidentify wireless carrier performance effects. Example methods andapparatus to identify wireless carrier performance effects aredisclosed. A disclosed example method includes receiving an indicationof media content presentation on a wireless communication device,monitoring a wireless carrier operating parameter in response toreceiving the indication of media content presentation, and monitoringthe wireless communication device for a media content presentationcommand. The example method also includes associating the media contentpresentation command and the wireless carrier operating parameter with ascoring factor indicative of subscriber preferences, and generating areport including the scoring factor.

A disclosed example apparatus includes a wireless monitor interface toreceive an indication of a media content control command from a wirelesscommunication device, and a data acquisition engine to acquire operatingparameters associated with an instance of media content presentation.The example apparatus also includes a heuristics engine to identify aheuristic set of the media content control command and the operatingparameters, and a scoring engine to associate the identified heuristicset with a scoring factor.

Media-centric companies and/or organizations (hereinafter media contentproviders) invest significant resources when preparing media content fora target audience. Resources invested by the media content providersinclude, for example, marketing efforts to develop media content thatattempts to captivate the target audience, production efforts toconstruct media content that is visually and/or audibly pleasing to thetarget audience, and/or fees provided to one or more wireless carriers(e.g., a wireless service provider) and/or broadcast network(s)associated with the privilege to present such media content to thetarget audience. In view of one or more of the aforementioned resourcesinvested in the media content, the media content providers have aheightened interest in knowing that the media content is provided to theone or more target audience members with a threshold degree of quality.

Wireless carriers (referred to herein as wireless carriers or wirelessservice providers) operate as an intermediary content infrastructurebetween the media content providers having and/or providing mediacontent (e.g., a movie, an advertisement, a web page, etc.), and one ormore subscribers of the wireless carrier that comprise target audiencemembers that the media content provider would like to reach with themedia content. Media content provided by the media content provider maybe provided via an intranet and/or the Internet, which the subscribersmay access via the one or more resources accessible and/or provided bythe wireless carrier (e.g., wireless cell-towers, relay stations, etc.).Upon reaching an intranet and/or the Internet via the wireless carrierresources, each subscriber may consume and/or otherwise experience mediacontent provided by one or more media content providers.

Wireless carrier resources typically include one or more transceivertowers having wireless telecommunication base stations connected to oneor more wireless communication devices, such as cellular telephones,pagers, PDAs, handheld wireless computers, wireless gaming devices,and/or any other wireless communication device that may be used toreceive media content from the media content providers. The one or moretransceiver towers communicate with wireless communication devices toexchange information (e.g., voice information, data, video, controlinformation, etc.) with a telecommunications system. Such transceivertowers are typically located in cell areas and sites within a geographicarea and configured to work in connection with any wirelesstelecommunication standard including, but not limited to Advanced MobilePhone Systems (AMPS), Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) systems, TimeDivision Multiple Access (TDMA) systems, Global System for Mobilecommunications (GSM) systems, Enhanced Data rates for Global Evolution(EDGE) systems, General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) systems, PersonalDigital Communications (PDC) systems, Personal Communication Services(PCS) systems, Universal Mobile Telecommunications Systems (UMTS), LongTerm Evolution (LTE) systems, Time Division Synchronous Code DivisionMultiple Access (TD-SCDMA) and/or Personal Handy-phone Systems (PHS).Additionally or alternatively, wireless communication devices may employany other radio-based communication protocol including, but not limitedto a Bluetooth based communication protocol, a communication protocolthat conforms to any of the Institute of Electrical and ElectronicsEngineers (IEEE) standards 802.11x, 802.11b, 802.11g, 802.11x (WiFi®)and/or any other suitable short-range wireless communication protocol.

The media content provided by the media content providers may include,but is not limited to video content (e.g., television programming,movies, advertisements, animations, MPEG-2, MPEG-4, Windows Media Video(“WMV”), QuickTime® Movie, Real Video, etc.), flash video (e.g., videofor Adobe® flash player (F4V), protected video for Adobe® flash player(F4P), etc.), audio content (e.g., radio programming, Internet radio,satellite radio, MPEG layer-3, Windows Media Audio (“WMA”), Real Audio,audio for Adobe® flash player (F4A), audio book for Adobe® flash player(F4B), etc.), video game content, application content, graphics content(e.g., electronic art, photos, pictures, etc.), Internet information(e.g., web pages, rich site summary (“RSS”), text notifications, etc.),interactive media content, e-mail content, text message content,multimedia content and/or any other content that may be delivered by themedia content provider 114. The media content may include, for example,entertainment content, educational content, news, advertising,demographics-based targeted advertising, geographic-based targetedadvertising, interest-based targeted advertising, etc. The media contentprovider may deliver the media content and/or make such media contentavailable via the Internet in compressed and/or uncompressed formats andin encrypted and/or unencrypted formats.

Subscribers to the wireless carrier select and/or otherwise receivemedia content via their wireless communication device. As describedabove, the subscribers may have access to the media content by way ofsystems, facilities and/or infrastructure provided by the wirelesscarrier. As a result, the quality of such transmitted media content maybe affected by one or more capabilities/limitations of such systems,facilities and/or infrastructure. The media content may be provided tothe subscribers via a broadcast communication, which delivers the samedata (e.g., the same video advertisement/program) to all of the wirelesscommunication devices that are within range (e.g., within range of atransceiver tower) to receive communication signals from the cell towerand/or plurality of cell towers used by the wireless carrier to transmitthe broadcast communication provided by the media content provider. Onthe other hand, the media content may be provided to one or moresubscribers via a multicast communication, in which the media content isdelivered to selected ones of the subscribers (e.g., in response to asubscriber's selection to receive content). A subscriber's selection forthe multicast communication may occur in connection with, for example,pay-per-view selections, subscription-based selections, etc. Thewireless carrier may employ one or more back channel links (e.g., areturn channel, a reverse channel, a return path, etc.) with thewireless devices and/or the media content providers. Such back channellinks may be used to exchange information between the subscriber (e.g.,the subscriber's wireless device) related to selections and/or commands(e.g., start, stop, pause, skip, fast forward, rewind, cancel, search,etc.).

The methods and apparatus described herein facilitate, in part,monitoring of commands in connection with one or more performanceparameters of the wireless device and/or carrier network during asubscriber's interaction (e.g., receipt) with the media content. Forexample, although the media content provider may provide, transmitand/or otherwise make available media content having a particularquality (e.g., a particular resolution, a particular display rate inframes-per-second (fps)), such media content may arrive at thesubscriber's wireless device at a diminished, degraded and/or attenuatedquality. Such quality limitation may occur, for example, due to one ormore infrastructure limitations of the wireless carrier, such as channelcrowding, bandwidth limitations and/or time-of-day demand-basedlimitations. Quality limitations of the wireless carrier may differbetween carriers and cause undesired video, audio and/or datainterruptions. Undesired effects of wireless carrier infrastructurelimitations may manifest as choppy video playback, decreased displayframe rates, reduced video resolution playback quality, increasedbuffering delays, audio/video synchronization issues, jitter, signalstrength limitation(s) and/or reduced audio quality (e.g., reduced bitrate). One consequence of the inability of a wireless carrier to delivermedia content in accordance with one or more quality parameter values,levels, etc. is that the value to the media content provider fordelivering the content decreases. In other words, the media contentprovider may have paid a monetary value to have media content displayedand/or otherwise made available at an agreed-upon degree of quality(e.g., a predetermined video resolution quality, a predetermined framerate, a threshold buffer delay duration, a predetermined audio bit rate,etc.) to the subscribers of the wireless carrier. Substandard qualityhas, at least, the potential of creating negative subscriber impressionsof the product and/or service associated with the media content. A lossof profits and/or sales opportunities may result when the subscriberbecomes frustrated with substandard content delivery.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating an example system 100 to identifywireless carrier performance effects. The system 100 of FIG. 1 includesa carrier measurement entity 102 configured to analyze one or morequality parameters of wireless carriers and resulting subscriber actionsbased on such quality parameters. The example carrier measurement entity102 is communicatively coupled to an intranet and/or the Internet 104,which is further communicatively coupled to one or more wirelesscarriers, such as example wireless carrier “A” 106 and example wirelesscarrier “B” 108, each having any number of wireless transceiver towers.Although two example wireless carriers are shown (wireless carriers “A”106 and “B” 108), any number of wireless carriers may be monitored bythe example carrier measurement entity 102. The example wirelesscarriers “A” 106 and “B” 108 are further communicatively coupled towireless communication devices 110 and 112, respectively. The wirelesscommunication devices 110 and 112 may be, for example, cellulartelephones, pagers, any cellular communication device (e.g., handheldcellular communication devices, cellular adapters for personalcomputers, etc.), PDAs, handheld wireless computers, wireless gamingdevices, and/or any other wireless communication device that may be usedto receive media content from a media content provider 114. The examplemedia content provider 114 is also communicatively connected to thewireless communication devices 110 and 112 by way of anintranet/Internet 104 and the respective wireless carrier “A” 106 or thewireless carrier “B” 108.

Each of the example wireless communication devices 110 and 112 includesan example wireless monitor 116 that is configured to, in part, meterwireless activity of the respective subscriber. As described in furtherdetail below, the example wireless monitor 116 monitors and acquiresinformation (e.g., values) associated with one or more carrierperformance parameters of the corresponding wireless carrier 106, 108.Wireless carrier performance parameters may include, but are not limitedto a frame rate of displayed media content (e.g., in fps), a videoquality of displayed media content (e.g., a resolution), an audioquality of displayed media content (e.g., a bit rate in bps), abuffering delay time period of the displayed media content (e.g., inseconds), a channel crowding value, a bandwidth and/or a power levelbetween the wireless communication device 110 and 112 and a respectivetransceiver tower. The example wireless monitor 116 also monitorssubscriber activity during and/or after media content is displayed onor, more generally, rendered/presented by the respective device 110 and112 and/or an attempt to be displayed on or rendered by the respectivedevice 110 and 112. For example, the example wireless monitor 116monitors and acquires subscriber selection events (e.g., subscriberselections to view media content), subscriber fast-forward events,rewind events, cancel events (e.g., a subscriber request to discontinueweb-page loading), web address entry events (e.g., a subscriber requestto navigate to a web-page), and/or reload events (e.g., a subscriberrequest to reload a web-page). Reload events may occur when, forexample, the subscriber becomes frustrated with relatively long waittimes for the media content (e.g., a web-page, a video clip, an audioclip, etc.) to be displayed.

In the illustrated example of FIG. 1, the carrier measurement entity 102includes a wireless monitor interface 118, a data acquisition engine120, a heuristics engine 122, and a scoring engine 124. The examplewireless monitor interface 118 maintains scheduled, periodic, aperiodicand/or manual connectivity with the example wireless monitor 116 moduleswithin each wireless communication device, such as the example wirelesscommunication devices 110 and 112 associated with the carrier “A” 106and the carrier “B” 108, respectively. Data acquired by the examplewireless monitor interface 118 may be stored in tabular format to a dataacquisition database 126, as described in further detail below inconnection with FIG. 2. While the example wireless monitor 116 performsone or more network parameter measurements and transmits such resultingparameter values to the wireless monitor interface 118 for storage inthe data acquisition database 126, the example data acquisition engine120 may perform additional data acquisition tasks via one or more testand measurement instruments located in one or more geographic locationsof a carrier network/infrastructure. For example, one or more basestations associated with the carrier “A” 106 and/or the carrier “B” 108may include a base station tester, such as the Agilent® E7495A/B BaseStation Test Set to facilitate channel power measurements, adjacentchannel power measurements, bandwidth for adjacent power channels, etc.Collection of such power measurements may be accomplished via, forexample, networked connectivity between the example data acquisitionengine 120 and one or more data acquisition devices within the carrierinfrastructure, such as within a base station of the carrier “A” 106.Time-stamped channel power measurements may further correlate to one ormore events measured by the example wireless monitor 116 in an effort tocorrelate carrier performance capabilities and corresponding mediacontent quality metrics (e.g., observation of decreased frame rateparameter values when channel powers are relatively low).

The example heuristics engine 122 identifies one or more causes forsubscriber behavior based on, in part, media content target quality,media content quality as delivered (e.g., displayed/rendered/presentedvideo and/or audio, etc.) to the subscriber, and/or subscriber behaviorduring and/or after the media content was presented and/or attemptedpresentation. Advertisers, media-broadcasters and/or other users of theexample system 100 may develop one or more heuristics matrices thatidentify one or more reasons for subscriber behavior during and/or aftermedia content is presented. Such heuristics matrices may be stored in anexample heuristics database 128. FIG. 2 is an example heuristics matrix200 that includes a media action column 202, a carrier parameters column204 and a scoring factor column 206. In operation, the exampleheuristics engine 122 of FIG. 1 identifies a matching action in themedia action column 202 that occurred during presentation during and/orafter media content was displayed to one or more subscribers. Mediaactions may include, but are not limited to actions initiated by thesubscriber (e.g., play, pause, cancel, fast-forward, rewind, etc.),interruptions due to incoming calls and/or text messages, and/or actionscaused by the carrier network/infrastructure (e.g., dropped mediacontent due to channel crowding, bandwidth limitations, etc.).

For example, a subscriber interrupting media content playback prior tocompletion of the media content 208 may not, by itself, identify why thesubscriber chose to stop the media content. However, the exampleheuristics engine 122 also identifies corresponding carrier parameters204 that occurred at or around the time at which the media contentplayback was ended by the subscriber. In the event that a load time(e.g., buffering time) of the corresponding media content was between 5%and 10% above an average and/or expected load time 210 (e.g., a durationof time for which the wireless communication device buffers content overthe carrier network), then the example heuristics engine 122 associatesthe event with a corresponding scoring factor 206 indicative of carrierfault and/or subscriber frustration. In the aforementioned example case,a load time between 5% and 10% of a threshold value corresponds to anexample scoring factor of −0.10 (212). As described in further detailbelow, each instance of media content requested by and/or presented toone or more subscribers is associated with a score based on, in part,one or more quality of service (QoS) parameters and correspondingsubscriber behavior during the playback and/or attempted playback of themedia content (e.g., video content, audio content, web-page retrieval,etc.).

The methods and apparatus described herein may be used to identifyreasons why subscribers may interrupt media content prior to completeplayback, aggregate the scored instances of media content exposure tothe subscribers to generate one or more generalized scores on aper-carrier basis, and allow advertisers, broadcast entities and/orsubscribers to identify which carriers demonstrate a relatively betterability to provide wireless media services. Additionally, suchaggregated metrics may be calculated to identify subscriber preferencesrelated to performance parameters, which may include ranking one or morewireless carriers, and/or identifying a corresponding value and/or leaserate for using the infrastructure of the carriers to disseminate mediacontent from the media content providers to one or more subscribers. Inother words, those wireless carriers having a superior ability toprovide media content to satisfy a desired quality parameter value ordegree relative to a threshold representing a minimum level ofacceptable quality may better justify a higher advertising rate/fee ascompared to those wireless carriers that fail to meet the one or morethreshold quality parameter values established by the media contentprovider (e.g., a threshold video resolution, a threshold rate in fps, athreshold audio quality, a threshold maximum buffering/load-time value,etc.).

In the illustrated example of FIG. 2, in the event that a subscriberinterrupts media content prior to completion of presentation of suchmedia by attempting to reload such media content 214 (e.g., aweb-browser reload button press), then the example heuristics engine 122also identifies corresponding carrier parameters 204 during the reloadattempt(s). Subscriber actions of reload during, for example,particularly long load times 216 may be indicative of a heightened levelof subscriber frustration and/or a heightened subscriber desire toretrieve the media content. Accordingly, the example heuristics engine122 associates such events with a negative scoring factor having agreater magnitude 218 (e.g., −0.15) as compared to instances when thesubscriber does not make one or more refresh attempts for the same mediacontent. On the other hand, if the subscriber is making one or morerequests to reload the media content 214 and the carrier metrics 204indicate that all carrier parameters meet and/or exceed threshold levels220, then the example heuristics engine 122 associates the event with aneutral and/or positive scoring factor 222. Such example scenarios mayoccur when the poor quality and/or relatively excessive load times arenot the fault of the wireless carrier, but instead may be due to mediacontent provider network problems and/or intranet/Internet congestion.Additionally, in some circumstances the subscriber does not interruptand/or cause the media content to stop by way of an express command(e.g., a stop command, a skip command, etc.). As such, the correspondingmedia action column 202 scenario is identified by the heuristics engine122 as a situation in which media is interrupted and/or ends withoutsubscriber request, and includes corresponding scoring factors 206 basedon corresponding carrier parameters 204 that exist at that time.

The one or more media actions of the example media action column 202,carrier metrics of the carrier metric column 204, and the one or morescoring factors of the scoring factor column 206 may be arranged and/orstored as the example heuristics matrix 200 in the example heuristicsdatabase 128. One or more users of the methods and apparatus describedherein may create, delete and/or edit one or more entries/aspects of theexample heuristics matrix 200 based on, for example, industryexperience, observed trends, intuitive judgments, educated guesses,and/or any other problem solving strategic causes and effects. Theexample data acquisition database 126 and/or the example heuristicsdatabase may be queried by any application programming interface (API),such as a structured query language (SQL) API. Additionally, the exampledata acquisition database 126 and/or the example heuristics database maybe implemented as mainframe databases (e.g., IBM® DB2, IBM® VirtualStorage Access Method (VSAM), IBM® Indexed Sequential Access Method(ISAM), Adabas D by Software AG®, etc.), client-server databases (e.g.,Oracle®, Informix®, SQL Server®, etc.), and/or PC databases (e.g.,Microsoft® Access®.

Returning to FIG. 1, the example scoring engine 124 applies the one ormore scoring factors associated with each instance of media exposure togenerate a normalized score for each wireless carrier. As described infurther detail below, the example scoring engine 124 may rank eachwireless carrier based on an overall ability to satisfy or exceed one ormore quality thresholds, and/or rank each wireless carrier based on itsability to meet or exceed a particular parameter quality level (e.g., aparticular bandwidth parameter, a particular frame-rate parameter, aparticular audio bit rate parameter, etc.).

FIG. 3 is a detailed schematic illustration of the example wirelessmonitor 116 shown in FIG. 1. The example wireless monitor 116 includes acommunication interface 302, a memory 304, a data packet analyzer 306, amedia decoder 308, a location interface 312, and an application monitor316. In operation, the example communication interface 302 receivesmedia content from the carrier (e.g., the carrier “A” 106, the carrier“B” 108, etc.) and/or process voice/data communications via the carrier(e.g., send/receive telephone calls, text messages, etc.). The examplecommunication interface 302 may be implemented using one or morewireless communication protocols including, for example, FLO®, DVB-H,TDMA, GSM®, CDMA, LTE, UMTS, TD-SCDMA, WiFi® and/or any other multicast,unicast, LAN, WLAN and/or broadcast media delivery protocols orvoice/data communication protocols.

To store media content and/or other information associated with thewireless communication devices 110 and 112 (e.g., received textmessages, contact telephone numbers, application files, etc.), theexample wireless monitor 116 includes the memory 304. To analyze datapackets used to deliver media content, the example wireless monitor 116includes the data packet analyzer 306 that is configured to, in part,extract metering information (e.g., program identification information,channel identification information, content provider identificationinformation, base station identifier information, etc.) and/or otherinformation used to generate metering information from data packets usedby the media content provider 114 and/or carrier (e.g., the carrier “A”106, the carrier “B” 108, etc.) to communicate media content.

To decode and/or otherwise identify the media content received from themedia content provider 114, the example wireless monitor 116 includesthe one or more media decoder(s) 308. The media decoders 308 may includeone or more video decoders, one or more audio decoders, one or moregraphics decoders, one or more video game engines, one or more Internetdata decoders (e.g., html decoders, Java® decoders, etc.), etc.Alternatively, media content identification may occur via analysis ofmedia header information (e.g., metadata indicative of author, title,publisher, etc.). In some examples, the data packet analyzer 306 may beemployed to identify media information via the header information and/orthe header information may be analyzed by the example data acquisitionengine 120 and/or the carrier measurement entity 102.

To determine a location of the example wireless communication device 110and 112, the example wireless monitor 116 includes the locationinterface 312 configured to, for example, detect and/or determine thelocations to which the example wireless communication devices 110 and112 are moved. The location interface 312 may be implemented using anylocation detection/determination technology including, but not limitedto, a GPS receiver, a dead reckoning system, an electronic compass,technology to determine location based on triangulation techniques,sensors to detect location codes or identification codes indicative of alocation, etc. The example wireless monitor 116 is also provided withthe application monitor 316 to detect when media presentation softwareof the wireless communication devices 110 and 112 has been instantiatedand/or when media content is being presented to the subscriber(s). Inoperation, the example application monitor 316 may detect differentoperations/events associated with the media presentation software, suchas play, pause, skip, rewind, fast forward, etc. Such events are storedin the example memory 304 with corresponding time/date indicators forlater analysis.

In operation, the example wireless monitor 116 acquires sessioninformation and saves such information in the memory 304. Additionallyor alternatively, the session information may be forwarded to theexample carrier measurement entity 102 to build one or more contentsession information charts, such as an example content sessioninformation data structure 400 of FIG. 4. Information to populate theexample content session information data structure 400 may be obtainedfrom data embedded by the media content provider 114 and/or informationembedded in one or more header fields of transmitted carrier networkdata packets.

As shown in the illustrated example of FIG. 4, the data structure 400includes measured content session start time information 402 andmeasured content session end time information 404 to indicate when thewireless communication device(s) 110 and 112 start and stop presentingparticular media content. The example data structure 400 also includesservice provider information 406 to indicate the identification (e.g.,name, identification code, etc.) of the media content provider 114 (FIG.1). Delivery type information 408 may also be used to indicate thecommunication protocols and/or transmission mediums used by the wirelesscarrier(s) 106 and 108 to deliver the media content from the provider114 to the communication device(s) 110 and 112. In an exampleimplementation, options for the delivery type information 408 mayinclude over-the-air (“OTA”) terrestrial delivery (e.g., FLO, DVB-H,etc.), OTA satellite delivery, Internet protocol (“IP”) multicast,broadcast, unicast, general packet radio service (“GPRS”), evolutiondata only (“EVDO”), etc. Content type information 410 is used toindicate the type of media delivered such as, for example, video media,audio media, audio/video media, video games, graphics, web pages,Internet data, etc. Additionally or alternatively, the content typeinformation 410 may be used to indicate whether media content was livebroadcast media or one or more downloaded clip(s) (e.g., deliveredper-request, on-demand delivery, etc.).

To identify particular media programs, the example content sessioninformation data structure 400 includes media title information 412 andcorresponding expected duration information 414 for the media ofinterest. In some instances, the expected duration information 414 mayindicate a length of time that exceeds a difference between the measuredstart time information 402 and the measured end time information 404.Such instances may occur when the media content was interrupted bysubscriber cancellation, subscriber selection of alternate media,subscriber request(s) to reload the media, and/or one or moreinterruptions due to incoming telephone calls and/or text messages.

The example data structure 400 also includes IP time offset information416 to determine time offsets associated with delivery of IP packets.For example, the IP time offset information 416 may indicate the amountof time (e.g., due to carrier network latency, switch/router hops, mediacontent provider delay, etc.) required for an IP network packet topropagate from a source (e.g., the media content provider 114 of FIG. 1)to a destination (e.g., the wireless communication devices 110 and 112of FIG. 1). The IP time offset information 416 may be used by thecarrier measurement entity 102 to generate media consumption and/orexposure information associated with QoS metrics. As described above,QoS metrics may also include, but are not limited to, signal strengthinformation, channel power information, latency information, channelcrowding, etc.

To determine a location of a wireless communication device (e.g., thewireless devices 110 and 112 of FIG. 1), when receiving media content,the example data structure 400 is provided with a transmittingtower/base station identifier (ID) 418. The transmitting tower/basestation ID 418 may include one or more cellular tower identifiers and/orbroadcast tower identifiers identifying one or more cellular towersand/or one or more broadcast towers from which the wirelesscommunication devices 110 and 112 receive media content. The examplecarrier measurement entity 102, via the example wireless monitorinterface 118, may use the transmitting tower/base station ID 418 toderive a location of cell towers that transmitted media content to thewireless communication devices 110 and 112 and/or derive an approximatelocation of the wireless communication device 110 and 112.

Additionally, the example data structure 400 includes locationinformation 420 indicative of the location of the wireless communicationdevices 110 and 112 while receiving the media content. The locationinformation 420 may be generated using location detection devices (e.g.,global position system (“GPS”) devices) in the wireless communicationdevices 110 and 112, using triangulation techniques involving detectingdistances from one or more transceiver towers, and/or using any otherlocation determination system.

To identify one or more carrier parameter values experienced by thesubscriber while the media content was provided, the example datastructure 400 includes any number of carrier parameters 422. Carrierparameters may include, but are not limited to a frame rate parameter424 (e.g., a value in fps), a video resolution parameter 426, an audioquality parameter 428, a buffer time parameter 430, a base station powerat the start time parameter 432, a base station power at the end timeparameter 434, an average base station power during the entire mediacontent delivery attempt 436 and/or any other metric indicative ofsignal strength. In the event that the subscriber causes one or moreevents during the time period in which the media content is deliveredand/or attempted to be delivered, the example data structure 400includes subscriber actions during delivery 438. As described above,subscriber actions may include a request to play the media content,pause the media content, fast forward, rewind, skip, reload/refresh themedia content, and/or initiate alternate media content. One or more suchevents may be provided in the example data structure 400 as a commadelimited string.

While the example system 100 to identify wireless carrier performanceeffects has been illustrated in FIGS. 1 through 4, one or more of theinterfaces, data structures, elements, processes, GUIs, and/or devicesillustrated in FIGS. 1 through 4 may be combined, divided, re-arranged,omitted, eliminated and/or implemented in any other way. Further, theexample carrier measurement entity 102, the example wirelesscommunication devices 110 and 112, the example wireless monitor 116, theexample wireless monitor interface 118, the example data acquisitionengine 120, the example heuristics engine 122, the example scoringengine 124, the example data acquisition database 126, the exampleheuristics database 128, the example communication interface 302, theexample memory 304, the example data packet analyzer 306, the examplemedia decoder 308, the example location interface 312, the exampleapplication monitor 316, and/or the example content session informationdata structure 400 of FIGS. 1-4 may be implemented by hardware,software, firmware and/or any combination of hardware software and/orfirmware. Thus, for example, any of the example carrier measuremententity 102, the example wireless communication devices 110 and 112, theexample wireless monitor 116, the example wireless monitor interface118, the example data acquisition engine 120, the example heuristicsengine 122, the example scoring engine 124, the example data acquisitiondatabase 126, the example heuristics database 128, the examplecommunication interface 302, the example memory 304, the example datapacket analyzer 306, the example media decoder 308, the example locationinterface 312, the example application monitor 316, and/or the examplecontent session information data structure 400 may be implemented by oneor more circuit(s), programmable processor(s), application specificintegrated circuit(s) (ASIC(s)), programmable logic device(s) (PLD(s))and/or field programmable logic device(s) (FPLD(s)), etc. When any ofthe appended claims are read to cover a purely software and/or firmwareimplementation, at least one of the example carrier measurement entity102, the example wireless communication devices 110 and 112, the examplewireless communicator 116, the example wireless communicator interface118, the example data acquisition engine 120, the example heuristicsengine 122, the example scoring engine 124, the example data acquisitiondatabase 126, the example heuristics database 128, the examplecommunication interface 302, the example memory 304, the example datapacket analyzer 306, the example media decoder 308, the example locationinterface 312, the example application monitor 316, and/or the examplecontent session information data structure 400 are hereby expresslydefined to include a tangible medium such as a memory, a digitalversatile disc (DVD), a compact disc (CD), etc. storing the firmwareand/or software. Further still, a communication system may includeinterfaces, data structures, elements, processes and/or devices insteadof, or in addition to, those illustrated in FIGS. 1-4 and/or may includemore than one of any or all of the illustrated interfaces, datastructures, elements, processes and/or devices.

FIGS. 5, 6A, 6B, 7 and 8 illustrate example processes that may beperformed to implement the example system 100 to identify wirelesscarrier performance effects of FIGS. 1-4. The example processes of FIGS.5, 6A, 6B, 7 and 8 may be carried out by a processor, a controllerand/or any other suitable processing device. For example, the exampleprocesses of FIGS. 5, 6A, 6B, 7 and 8 may be embodied in codedinstructions stored on any tangible computer-readable medium such as aflash memory, a CD, a DVD, a floppy disk, a read-only memory (ROM), arandom-access memory (RAM), a programmable ROM (PROM), anelectronically-programmable ROM (EPROM), and/or anelectronically-erasable PROM (EEPROM), an optical storage disk, anoptical storage device, magnetic storage disk, a magnetic storagedevice, and/or any other tangible medium.

Alternatively, some or all of the example processes of FIGS. 5, 6A, 6B,7 and 8 may be implemented using any combination(s) of ASIC(s), PLD(s),FPLD(s), discrete logic, hardware, firmware, etc. Also, one or more ofthe example operations of FIGS. 5, 6A, 6B, 7 and 8 may instead beimplemented manually or as any combination of any of the foregoingtechniques, for example, any combination of firmware, software, discretelogic and/or hardware. Further, many other methods of implementing theexample operations of FIGS. 5, 6A, 6B, 7 and 8 may be employed. Forexample, the order of execution of the blocks may be changed, and/or oneor more of the blocks described may be changed, eliminated, sub-divided,or combined. Additionally, any or all of the example operations of FIGS.5, 6A, 6B, 7 and 8 may be carried out sequentially and/or carried out inparallel by, for example, separate processing threads, processors,devices, discrete logic, circuits, etc.

The example process 500 of FIG. 5 begins with the example wirelesscommunicator 116 initiating embedded metering functions on a wirelesscommunication device (block 502), such as on the example wirelesscommunication devices 110 and 112 of FIG. 1. The example wirelessmonitor 116 may receive metering and/or other data acquisition softwarefrom the example carrier measurement entity 102 via a wireless softwaretransfer. Alternatively, the metering software and/or data acquisitionsoftware executed by the example wireless monitor 116 may bepre-installed on the wireless communication devices 110 and 112 so thatany associated subscriber is not burdened with one or more tasks relatedto installing and/or configuring metering software on the wirelesscommunication devices 110 and 112. The metering software and/or hardwareof the communication devices 110 and 112 may be configured to monitorall of the media content presented by the wireless carriers 106 and 108and/or the metering software executed by the example wireless monitor116 may be responsive to invocation requests of the example wirelessmonitor interface 118 to begin and/or cease monitoring tasks.

The example wireless monitor 116 monitors for an instance of mediacontent being presented on the wireless communication device (block504), such as a movie clip, an advertisement, audio, and/or web-browsingactivity by the subscriber on the wireless communication device 110 and112 shown in FIG. 1. In response to such media content presentationactivity occurring (block 504), the example communication interface 302of the wireless monitor 116 acquires one or more operating parametervalues of the carrier (e.g., the carrier “A” 106, the carrier “B” 108),carrier network (e.g., router/switch information, router/switchperformance information, etc.), the wireless media device 110 and 112(e.g., battery strength, received signal power, channel, channel power,channel bandwidth, signal strength, etc.), and/or the media contentprovider 114 (block 506). Operating parameter values monitored, acquiredand/or otherwise collected by the example wireless monitor 116 include,but are not limited to signal strength information, bandwidthinformation, frame-rate information (e.g., in fps), data rateinformation (e.g., in bps), audio quality information,tower/base-station identification information, location information,and/or carrier name information. Operating parameter values of thecarrier and/or the carrier network may also be acquired by the exampledata acquisition engine 120. As described above, the example dataacquisition engine 120 may be communicatively coupled to one or moretest and measurement devices located at any number of points within acarrier network infrastructure. Communication to/from such test andmeasurement devices may be realized by way of IP network addressablecommands to initiate network parameter metrics, such as channel powerlevel measurements, signal strength measurements, network latencymeasurements and/or data rate measurements. Additionally, the examplewireless monitor 116 captures the type of media content being displayedor attempted to be displayed on the wireless communication device 110and 112 (block 508). Media content types may include, but are notlimited to advertisements, television shows, unicast streaming,multicast broadcasts, and/or web-browsing activity.

Parameter performance data related to the carrier, the carrier networkinfrastructure and/or the wireless communication device may be stored bythe wireless monitor 116 in the memory 304 and/or stored in the dataacquisition database 126. The example communication interface 302 of thewireless monitor 116 monitors the wireless communication devices 110 and112 for an instance of media content display completion, interruption,reloading, and/or cancellation (block 510). Details of such changes tothe media content during the display and/or during the attempted displayare logged by the example communication interface and saved to thememory 304 and/or the data acquisition database 126. Additionally, suchactions may be saved in the example data structure 400 as one or more ofthe comma delimited subscriber actions 438 during delivery. In someinstances, media content interruption is associated with a networkexplanation and/or error code. For example, if the media content wasinterrupted and/or otherwise did not begin or complete presentation onthe wireless communication device, the carrier network error code(s) mayprovide information related to one or more causes. The examplecommunication interface 302 monitors the carrier network for one or moreerror codes indicative of a reason that presentation of the mediacontent stopped prematurely, such as channel crowding error codes,insufficient bandwidth error codes, incoming call/text error codes,and/or timeout error codes when buffering activity surpasses one or morepredetermined threshold duration values (block 512). Without limitation,one or more error codes may originate from the wireless communicationdevices 110 and 112. For example, a low battery error code may beinitiated by the communication device 110 that prevents one or moredevice functions (e.g., prevents playing MP3 file(s), prevents videodisplay(s), prevents data access, etc.) in an effort to conserveremaining battery power.

Generally speaking, blocks 502 through 512 of the example process 500 ofFIG. 5 include data acquisition for each of any number of participatingwireless communication devices, such as each of the wirelesscommunication devices 110 and 112 that may operate in the example system100 of FIG. 1. Collected data may be aggregated and processed at a latertime and/or at periodic, aperiodic, scheduled, and/or on a manual basisto characterize the effects that wireless carrier performance has on oneor more subscribers (block 514). In other words, the methods andapparatus described herein may identify carrier performance-basedreasons why a subscriber may make one or more decisions whenexperiencing media content provided via the wireless carrier.Additionally or alternatively, the methods and apparatus describedherein may utilize the collected data and apply one or more scoringcalculations to determine, in part, which wireless carriers performbetter or worse in view of industry standard expectations and/orperformance thresholds (block 516).

FIG. 6A illustrates an example process 514 that may be performed tocategorize subscriber actions after/during the media content hascompleted a presentation operation and/or a presentation attempt on awireless communication device 110 and 112. The example data acquisitionengine 120 selects a mobile device identifier (e.g., a mobile telephonenumber, a mobile identification number, etc.) associated with any numberof wireless communication devices of the example system 100 that mayhave received and/or attempted to receive media content from a wirelesscarrier (block 602). Each selected mobile device identifier includes atleast one associated content session information data record 400 (FIG.4) that details information relating to a subscriber experience withmedia content provided by a media content provider via a wirelesscarrier (e.g., the carrier “A” 106, the carrier “B” 108, etc.). Theexample data acquisition engine 120 identifies whether the broadcastmedia was presented without interruption and/or within predeterminedquality parameter values (block 604). For example, the data acquisitiondatabase 126 may store one or more threshold values associated withperformance parameters of a wireless carrier such as, but not limitedto, bandwidth, data rate(s), latency, and/or load times (e.g., bufferingdelays). If the subscriber of the wireless communication device receivesthe complete media content and at a quality that meets or exceedsdemands and/or expectations of the media content provider 114 (block604), then control advances to block 606 and the example dataacquisition engine 120 determines if there are more mobile deviceidentifiers (e.g., subscribers with wireless communication devices) toanalyze. If not, control returns to the process 500 of FIG. 5, asdiscussed in further detail below, otherwise control returns to block602.

However, if the media content is not presented successfully (block 604),such as one or more instances when the subscriber only receives aportion of the media content, or the subscriber skips further retrievalattempts for the media content, and/or the carrier network drops furthertransmission attempts of the media content due to network infrastructurelimitations (e.g., channel crowding, excessive use/burden, time of daybandwidth stress, etc.), then the example heuristics engine 122determines whether the media content interruption was caused bysubscriber action or carrier network action (block 608). The exampleheuristics engine 122 reviews one or more entries to the example contentsession information data record 400 of FIG. 4 to determine whether themedia content interruption was caused by an incoming telephone calland/or incoming text message (block 610). Such interruptions are nottypically considered to represent wireless carrier fault and/or blame,thus control returns to block 606, otherwise the example heuristicsengine 122 determines whether the subscriber invoked one or moreretransmission requests of the media content (block 612). If not, thenthe interruption of the media content did not arise by way of subscriberrequest and/or command, but rather by way of wireless carrier faultand/or one or more faults related to the media content provider and/orintranet/Internet congestion. To further identify where to assert fault,if anywhere, the example heuristics engine 122 parses the exampleheuristics matrix 200 (FIG. 2) for a matching condition based on one ormore wireless carrier performance parameters (block 614). Conditions maybe identified by the heuristics engine 122 as a heuristic set, whichincludes a combination of a media action 202 with a correspondingcarrier parameter 204 to yield a corresponding scoring factor 206. Forexample, if the subscriber did not cause the media content to stop byway of express command (e.g., a stop command, a skip command, etc.),then the corresponding media action column 202 scenario is identified bythe heuristics engine 122, in which the media is interrupted and/orotherwise stops presentation without an associated subscriber cancelrequest (row 250, FIG. 2). Additionally, in an effort to associate acorresponding scoring factor 206 with the media action 202, the exampledata acquisition engine 120 determines whether one or more wirelesscarrier performance parameters are outside one or more acceptable limitsby comparing one or more thresholds stored in the data acquisitiondatabase 126 to parameter values stored in the example content sessioninformation data record 400 (FIG. 4). In the event that, for example,the wireless carrier had a parameter value (e.g., a latency value) thatexceeded a corresponding threshold value by no more than 5% (see 252 ofFIG. 2), then the heuristics engine 122 associates the wirelesscarrier's media content event with a negative scoring factor of −0.15(see 254 of FIG. 2) (block 614). Control returns to block 606 todetermine if there are additional mobile identification numbers toevaluate.

Returning to block 612, in the event that the subscriber is the cause ofthe media content stoppage due to, for example, a retransmissionrequest, then the example heuristics engine 122 identifies acorresponding media action 202 (see row 208 of FIG. 2), and the exampledata acquisition engine 120 parses the example content sessioninformation data record 400 (FIG. 4) for evidence that a wirelesscarrier parameter was exceeded at the time (block 616). If so, then theexample heuristics engine 122 may further evaluate what the subscriberdid to a greater degree of precision in an effort to ascertain arelative level of subscriber frustration (block 618). More specifically,the example heuristics engine 122 identifies whether the subscriber,when interrupting and/or causing the media content to stop, requested aretransmission of the same media content (e.g., a first media contentsample) or alternate media content (e.g., a second media content sample)(block 618). In the event that the subscriber made one or more requeststo retrieve and/or otherwise obtain the same media content again, ahigher likelihood of subscriber frustration and/or agitation exists(block 620). Such a situation directs the heuristics engine 122 toidentify a corresponding scoring factor with the media action 202category associated with row 214 of FIG. 2. Briefly, the scoring factors206 associated with media action 202 category of row 208, which is asubscriber-caused transmission cessation event are lower than thosescoring factors 206 associated with media action 202 category of row214, which illustrates a subscriber's demonstrated determination toobtain the same media content. Control advances to block 614 to matchthe identified combination of the media action 202 and the carriermetric 204 with a corresponding scoring factor 206.

In the event that the subscriber makes a retransmission request (block612), but there were no associated wireless carrier parameter valuesexceeded (block 616), the example heuristics engine 122 identifieswhether the subscriber's retransmission request was for the same mediacontent or alternate media content (block 622). In either situation, thewireless carrier has no fault because the carrier parameter values wereat (or better than) one or more parameter value thresholds of anexpected QoS (e.g., one or more QoS parameter thresholds agreed upon viacontractual agreement between the media content provider and thewireless carrier). At least two potential circumstances may explain whya subscriber made one or more retransmission requests despite the factthat the wireless carrier parameter thresholds met expectations. Forexample, a subscriber may have been bored with the media content and/ordisinterested in the media content (block 624). Such a circumstance mayallow the media content provider to consider whether the media contentachieves one or more expected objectives at captivating a targetaudience and/or entertaining the target audience. For instance, themedia content provider may log a number of instances in which asubscriber selects, skips and/or navigates via their wireless device foralternate media content when there are no issues with the wirelesscarrier's ability to maintain expected parameter values (e.g., expecteddata rates, expected video resolution, expected buffering delays, etc.).

Another reason that the subscriber made one or more retransmissionrequests despite the fact that the wireless carrier parameter thresholdsmet expectations may be that network congestion occurs at one or morenetwork locations that precede the wireless carrier's networkinfrastructure. In other words, any failure to provide the subscriberwith requested media content may be attributed to the media contentprovider and/or Internet congestion outside the control of the wirelesscarrier (block 626). Control advances to block 614 to match theidentified combination of the media action 202 and the carrier metric204 with a corresponding scoring factor 206. In some instances, thecorresponding scoring factor may credit the wireless carrier when one ormore operating parameters exceed agreed upon thresholds, therebyindicating a better ability to satisfy subscriber needs and/orexpectations for data, voice and/or video services.

Returning to block 608, if the subscriber does not interrupt and/orcause the media content to stop, the example data acquisition engine 120identifies whether one or more operating parameters of the wirelesscarrier has been exceeded (block 650), as shown in FIG. 6B. If not, thenthe example heuristics engine 122 selects a scoring factor based on thefact that the wireless carrier did not cause the interrupted and/orstopped media content (block 652). Instead, such display of mediacontent may be attributed to general Internet congestion and/or one ormore intranet and/or infrastructure limitations on behalf of the mediacontent provider. In some instances, the example heuristics engine 122may select a scoring factor having a positive value to represent meetingor exceeding a media presentation quality requirement operatingparameter(s) if such operating parameter(s) meet and/or exceed one ormore established thresholds. However, in the event that the wirelesscarrier has been identified as exceeding one or more operatingparameters (block 650), the example heuristics engine 122 determineswhether the subscriber has made one or more retransmission requests(block 654). Generally speaking, a subscriber that does not invoke oneor more retransmission requests is deemed by the example heuristicsengine 122 as having a relatively mild degree of frustration with theirwireless communication device and/or wireless service provider, and anassociated scoring factor is identified (block 652). For thosesubscribers that do make one or more retransmission requests (block654), the example heuristics engine 122 further identifies whether suchretransmission requests were for the same or alternate media content(block 656). Subscribers that select alternate media in response to afailed prior attempt (block 656) may also experience a relativelymoderate degree of frustration, which is reflected in a correspondingapplied scoring factor 206 by the example heuristics engine 122. On theother hand, subscribers that select the same media for retransmission inresponse to a failed prior attempt (block 656) exhibit a greaterdetermination to retrieve the media content, thereby indicating agreater degree of frustration (block 658). The example heuristics engine122 takes such elevated likelihood of subscriber agitation intoconsideration when identifying a corresponding scoring factor 206 fromthe example heuristics matrix 200 of FIG. 2.

FIG. 7 illustrates an example process 700 to identify a wireless carrieradvertisement presentation success value. At least one objectiveaddressed by the example process 700 of FIG. 7 is to allow the mediacontent provider to identify objective metrics related to success and/orfailure of a wireless carrier to display advertising content to wirelesssubscribers. In turn, media content providers may have additionalnegotiating leverage to establish a market value price for the displayservices offered by the wireless carriers. In other words, successfuloccurrences of advertisement display typically warrant a higherper-advertisement fee paid by the media content provider, while failedoccurrences of advertisement display may allow the media contentprovider to justify payment withholding.

The example process 700 begins with the example communication interface302 waiting for an occurrence of advertisement reception (block 702).When an advertisement is detected by the example communication interface302, the example wireless monitor 116 (via the example communicationinterface 302, the example data packet analyzer, and/or the exampleapplication monitor 316) detects whether the advertisement is presentedto the subscriber within one or more a frame-rate limits (block 704)(e.g., threshold limit value(s)). If not, the example wireless monitor116 logs/records an instance of advertisement impression failure (block706), but continues to monitor the advertisement display for one or moreadditional carrier performance parameters of interest. The examplewireless monitor 116 detects whether the advertisement is presented tothe subscriber within a resolution limit (block 708) and records aninstance of advertisement impression failure (block 710) in the eventthat the wireless carrier displays the advertisement outside suchthreshold limits. In the event that the advertisement is presentedwithout interruption (block 712), such as without buffering delays, theexample wireless communicator 116 also determines whether theadvertisement is fully displayed to completion (block 714). If so, aninstance of advertising impression success is logged/recorded/saved bythe example wireless monitor 116 (block 716).

However, if the advertisement is interrupted during the display attempt(block 712), the example wireless monitor 116 determines whether such aninterruption was due to subscriber action (block 718), such as a pause,skip and/or subscriber cancel request. If so, then the example wirelessmonitor 116 does not apply fault by way of recording an impressionfailure, but rather allows the example process 700 to advance to block714. In the event that the subscriber did not cause the advertisementinterruption during the presentation attempt (block 718), then theinterruption fault (e.g., excessive buffering delay(s)) may be due tothe wireless carrier, Internet congestion, and/or the media contentprovider. To resolve whether the wireless carrier is at fault, theexample wireless monitor 116 and/or the data acquisition engine 120determine whether the wireless carrier has exceeded any operatingparameters (block 720). If not, then fault is undetermined (block 722),otherwise an instance of advertisement impression failure is recorded(block 724).

The example wireless monitor 116 returns to block 702 to wait for one ormore additional instances of an advertisement presentation on thewireless communication device(s) 110 and 112 (block 726) unless arequest to generate a report is invoked. Report requests may be invokedto generate an aggregated list of advertisement impressions on aperiodic, aperiodic, scheduled and/or manual basis (block 728).

FIG. 8 illustrates an example report 800 generated in response to one ormore iterations of the example process 700 of FIG. 7 and/or one or moreiterations of the example process 500 and/or 600 of FIGS. 5, 6A, and/or6B. In the illustrated example of FIG. 8, the report 800 includes acolumn of scoring parameters of interest 802 that may be monitoredand/or measured by the example wireless monitor 116 and/or the examplecarrier measurement entity 102. Example scoring parameters of interest802 shown in the illustrated report 800 of FIG. 8 include a number ofmedia content (e.g., an advertisement, a movie, a television show, aradio broadcast, a web-page navigation, etc.) transmission attempts 804,a number of completed media content presentation instances 806, a numberof media content display instances of less than 50% 808 (e.g., aone-minute advertisement only displayed on the wireless communicationdevice 110 and 112 for thirty seconds or less), a number of instances ofthe frame rate parameter exceeded by 5% 810, a number of instances ofthe frame rate parameter exceeded by 10% 812, etc. Any number ofadditional scoring parameters may be included in the example report 800.

Each scoring parameter of interest 802 includes a corresponding countvalue 814 and a corresponding aggregate score value 816. As describedabove, the count values 814, such as a count value for carrier “A” 818,a count value for carrier “B” 820, and a count value for carrier “C” 822may be derived from the example process 700 of FIG. 7. Also describedabove, the aggregate score values 816, such as an aggregate parameterscore for the carrier “A” 824, an aggregate parameter score for thecarrier “B” 826, and an aggregate score for carrier “C” 828 may bederived from the example process 600 of FIGS. 6A, 6B and the matchingscoring factors 206 identified from one or more matching media action(s)202 and carrier metrics 204 of FIG. 2. As shown in the example report800 of FIG. 8, some scoring parameters are not associated with anaggregate score value (“n/a”), but are instead metrics related to a rawcount value. Each example report 800 may be generated by the examplecarrier measurement entity 102 on a periodic basis, aperiodic basis,scheduled basis, and/or manual basis. In an effort to identify one ormore trends of each carrier of interest, prior generated reports may besaved with a time/date indicator.

In the illustrated example of FIG. 8, the report 800 aggregate scorevalue 816 provides a normalized value for a given time period for eachcarrier of interest 824, 826, and/or 828 and a corresponding scoringparameter 802. Each normalized aggregate score value is calculated basedon any number of media content display instances on wirelesscommunication devices for each respective wireless carrier andadjusted/normalized to fit within boundary values between zero and one.For instance, higher normalized scoring values shown in the illustratedexample report 800 of FIG. 8 may be indicative of a carrier having abetter relative ability to meet parameter limits and/or values (e.g.,that wireless carrier received fewer negative scoring factor values 206during a given time period of interest than other wireless carriers).Additionally, because each scoring factor 206 identified during theexample process 600 of FIGS. 6A and 6B is based on, in part, subscriberaction(s) in response to a given set of wireless parameters presentduring a media content display instance, such resulting aggregate scorevalues 816 are indicative of a degree of subscriber frustration.

FIG. 9 is a schematic diagram of an example processor platform P100 thatmay be used and/or programmed to implement any or all of the examplecarrier measurement entity 102, the example wireless communicatorinterface 118, the example data acquisition engine 120, the exampleheuristics engine 122, the example scoring engine 124, the examplewireless communicator 116, the example communication interface 302, theexample memory 304, the example data packet analyzer 306, the examplemedia decoder(s) 308, the example location interface 312 and/or theexample application monitor 316 of FIGS. 1 and 2. For example, theprocessor platform P100 can be implemented by one or moregeneral-purpose processors, processor cores, microcontrollers, etc.

The processor platform P100 of the example of FIG. 9 includes at leastone general-purpose programmable processor P105. The processor P105executes coded instructions P110 and/or P112 present in main memory ofthe processor P105 (e.g., within a RAM P115 and/or a ROM P120). Theprocessor P105 may be any type of processing unit, such as a processorcore, a processor and/or a microcontroller. The processor P105 mayexecute, among other things, the example processes of FIGS. 5, 6A, 6Band 7 to implement the example methods and apparatus described herein.

The processor P105 is in communication with the main memory (including aROM P120 and/or the RAM P115) via a bus P125. The RAM P115 may beimplemented by dynamic random access memory (DRAM), synchronous dynamicrandom access memory (SDRAM), and/or any other type of RAM device, andROM may be implemented by flash memory and/or any other desired type ofmemory device. Access to the memory P115 and the memory P120 may becontrolled by a memory controller (not shown). The example memory P115may be used to implement the example heuristics database 128, theexample data acquisition database 126 and/or the example memory 302 ofFIGS. 1 and 2.

The processor platform P100 also includes an interface circuit P130. Theinterface circuit P130 may be implemented by any type of interfacestandard, such as an external memory interface, serial port,general-purpose input/output, etc. One or more input devices P135 andone or more output devices P140 are connected to the interface circuitP130.

Although certain example methods, apparatus and articles of manufacturehave been described herein, the scope of coverage of this patent is notlimited thereto. On the contrary, this patent covers all methods,apparatus and articles of manufacture fairly falling within the scope ofthe appended claims either literally or under the doctrine ofequivalents.

What is claimed is:
 1. A computer implemented method to score a wirelesscarrier, comprising: monitoring, via a computer, a wireless carrier forcarrier operating parameters, the wireless carrier associated with anindication of a media content presentation on a wireless device;detecting, via the computer, a subscriber action associated with theindication of the media content presentation; and generating, via thecomputer, a wireless carrier score based on the subscriber action andthe carrier operating parameters by assigning a first scoring factor tothe wireless carrier when the subscriber action is indicative of aretransmission request, and assigning a second scoring factor to thewireless carrier when the subscriber action is indicative of a cancelrequest.
 2. A method as defined in claim 1, further including generatinga report including the wireless carrier score.
 3. A method as defined inclaim 1, further including identifying a heuristic set based on acombination of the subscriber action and one or more of the carrieroperating parameters.
 4. A method as defined in claim 3, wherein theidentified heuristic set is associated with a heuristic scoring factor.5. A method as defined in claim 1, further including: generating aplurality of wireless carrier scores over a time period for a pluralityof wireless carriers; and identifying a carrier rank of the wirelesscarrier based on the plurality of wireless carrier scores.
 6. A methodas defined in claim 1, wherein the first scoring factor has a magnitudegreater than the second scoring factor.
 7. A method as defined in claim1, wherein the carrier operating parameters include at least one of aframe rate, a bandwidth, a resolution, a bit rate, a latency, a signalstrength or a channel power.
 8. An apparatus to score a wirelesscarrier, the apparatus comprising: a data acquisition engine to monitora wireless carrier for carrier operating parameters, the wirelesscarrier associated with an indication of a media content presentation ona wireless device; a heuristics engine to detect a media actionassociated with the indication of the media content presentation and theheuristic engine to assign a first scoring factor to the media actionwhen the media action is indicative of a retransmission request, and toassign a second scoring factor to the media action when the media actionis indicative of a cancel request; and a scoring engine to generate awireless carrier score based on the media action and the carrieroperating parameters.
 9. An apparatus as defined in claim 8, furtherincluding a carrier measurement entity to generate a report includingthe wireless carrier score.
 10. An apparatus as defined in claim 8,wherein the heuristics engine is to identify a heuristic set based on acombination of the media action and one or more of the carrier operatingparameters.
 11. An apparatus as defined in claim 10, wherein theheuristics engine is to associate the heuristics set with a heuristicscoring factor.
 12. An apparatus as defined in claim 8, wherein thescoring engine is to: generate a plurality of wireless carrier scoresover a time period for a plurality of wireless carriers; and identify acarrier rank of the wireless carrier based on the plurality of wirelesscarrier scores.
 13. An apparatus as defined in claim 8, wherein thefirst scoring factor magnitude is greater than the second scoringfactor.
 14. An apparatus as defined in claim 8, wherein the carrieroperating parameters include at least one of a frame rate, a bandwidth,a resolution, a bit rate, a latency, a signal strength or a channelpower.
 15. A tangible machine readable storage device or storage diskcomprising instructions that, when executed, cause a machine to atleast: monitor a wireless carrier for carrier operating parameters, thewireless carrier associated with an indication of a media contentpresentation on a wireless device; detect a media action associated withthe indication of the media content presentation; and generate awireless carrier score based on the media action and the carrieroperating parameters by assigning a first scoring factor to the wirelesscarrier when the media action is a subscriber generated retransmissionrequest, and assigning a second scoring factor to the wireless carrierwhen the media action is a subscriber generated cancel request.
 16. Amachine readable storage device or storage disk as defined in claim 15,wherein the instructions further cause the machine to generate a reportincluding the wireless carrier score.
 17. A machine readable storagedevice or storage disk as defined in claim 15, wherein the instructionsfurther cause the machine to identify a heuristic set based on acombination of the media action and one or more of the carrier operatingparameters.
 18. A machine readable storage device or storage disk asdefined in claim 17, wherein the instructions further cause the machineto associate the heuristics set with a heuristic scoring factor.
 19. Amachine readable storage device or storage disk as defined in claim 15,wherein the instructions further cause the machine to: generate aplurality of wireless carrier scores over a time period for a pluralityof wireless carriers; and identify a carrier rank of the wirelesscarrier based on the plurality of wireless carrier scores.
 20. A machinereadable storage device or storage disk as defined in claim 15, whereinthe instructions further cause the machine to: assign the first scoringfactor magnitude greater than the second scoring factor.